This invention relates to techniques for dispensing liquids and formulating liquid mixtures. Automated systems for conducting high-throughput experimentation typically include liquid and/or solid dispensing technology that is capable of dispensing and mixing components in varying proportions and in precise, microscale quantities in a substrate, such as a microtiter plate, to prepare libraries of different materials on a miniaturized scale, creating hundreds to thousands of experiments at a time. The library is then processed under controlled conditions to produce a desired collection of materials. The library may then be screened for any of a variety of physical, chemical or functional properties to identify promising candidates for a target application.
Conventional automated high-throughput dispensing systems are typically intended for application in a specific field, such as biotechnology or catalyst research. These systems are therefore often designed to perform well under a limited range of conditions, and with a limited range of materials, that are expected to be relevant to typical experiments in the intended field. But the performance of these systems may suffer when they are confronted with conditions outside of their optimal performance domain—for example, dispensing in higher volumes than typical micro-scale high-throughput experimentation—or with materials that have properties that are significantly different from typical materials in their application domain. As a result, there remains a need for dispensing and blending techniques that are capable of performing quickly and accurately over a broad range of operating conditions.